Korean J Psychosom Med.  2019 Dec;27(2):130-137. 10.22722/KJPM.2019.27.2.130.

Effect of Multidisciplinary Emergency Consultation System for Drug Intoxicated Patients

• Kang J
• Kim HR
• Min K
• Kim NR
• Heo YK
• Kim SM

• KMID: 2470701
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.22722/KJPM.2019.27.2.130

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
When a patient who attempts suicide visits the emergency room, it is important that the departments of emergency medicine, internal medicine, and psychiatry communicate with each other and prioritize treatment. This study was conducted to verify the effectiveness of the multidisciplinary emergency consultation system (ECS) for drug intoxicated patients.
METHODS
We retrospectively analyzed the data from medical records prior to the ECS, from July 2017 to May 2018, and after the ECS, from July 2018 to May 2019, to verify the effectiveness of the system.
RESULTS
After the ECS, admission to open wards was significantly higher than to the intensive care units (χ²=8.567, p=0.014). In addition, the proportion of consultations to the department of psychiatry among patients admitted to other departments tended to increase (χ²=4.202, p=0.053), and the time required for consultation response decreased (Z=−2.031, p=0.042). As a result of the consultation, the proportion of the patients who had been transferred to the department of psychiatry was increased (χ²=4.692, p=0.043), and the time spent to transfer tended to decrease (Z=−1.941, p=0.052).
CONCLUSIONS
After implementing the ECS for drug intoxicated patients, unnecessary intensive care unit admissions, consultation response time, and the time spent to transfer were reduced, and the rate of consultation referrals and transfer rates increased. This means that the multidisciplinary consultation system rapidly provided essential medical services to patients at lower medical costs.

Keyword

Attempted suicide; Drug overdose; Psychiatric emergency service; Consultation and referral

MeSH Terms

Drug Overdose
Emergencies*
Emergency Medicine
Emergency Service, Hospital
Emergency Services, Psychiatric
Humans
Intensive Care Units
Internal Medicine
Medical Records
Reaction Time
Referral and Consultation
Retrospective Studies
Suicide
Suicide, Attempted